Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item :http://hdl.handle.net/2066/178976

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Subject:

Behaviour Change and Well-being

Organization:

FSW_Fac. algemeenSW OZ BSI SCP

Journal title:

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volume:

vol. 44

Issue:

iss. 11

Page start:

p. 1621

Page end:

p. 1627

Abstract:

The experience of authorship arises when we feel that observed effects (e.g., the onset of a light) are caused by our own actions (e.g., pushing a switch). This study tested whether dysphoric persons' authorship ascription can be modulated implicitly in a situation in which the exclusivity of the cause of effects is ambiguous. In line with the idea that depressed individuals' self-schemata include general views of uncontrollability, in a subliminal priming task we observed that dysphoric (compared with nondysphoric) participants experienced lower authorship of action effects when the self-concept was primed. Priming the potential effects of an action just prior to their occurrence, however, increased experiences of authorship in all participants and eliminated the effect of self-concept priming on dysphoric participants' authorship experiences. These findings suggest that the human mental system seizes on a match between primed and actual action effect to establish a sense of authorship, even in a state of depression when persons have weak self-views of causing behavioral outcomes.